But the Oilers are being especially careful with the 20-year-old defenceman, making sure they don’t put him on the big stage before he’s ready.

In Postmedia’s weekly look at who’s coming down the Oilers’ pipeline, we examine the development of their 10th-overall pick from the 2018 draft.

“Like any young player there were ebbs and flows to his rookie professional season,” said Jay Woodcroft, Bouchard’s coach in Bakersfield of the American Hockey League. “When you’re as young as he is, there are going to be ups and downs, but there were a lot more ups than there were downs.

“At one point, I would have put him up with a lot of the top defencemen in our division. He’s got great experience this year, played in every situation and he commanded big minutes.”

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Offensively, Bouchard is pretty much ready to step into the NHL right now. He was better than a point-per-game player in his last two years in junior and when he stepped right into the AHL playoffs as a 19-year-old rookie last year, he put up eight points in eight games. In his first full season with the Condors this year, 36 points in 54 games.

He knows what to do when the puck is on his stick.

“His strengths jump out to anybody who watches him play,” said Woodcroft. “His puck poise, his first pass, his game management in when to jump in offensively. He’s got the big shot from the blue line and finds a way to get it past layers of defenders. That’s a huge weapon that’s going to separate him going forward. He has skills from the offensive blue line that are hard to find.”

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But, like almost all young defenceman, Bouchard still needs to bring the defensive side of his game to a higher level. Part of his development process will eventually be learning on the fly in the NHL, but that’s hard to do if the coach doesn’t feel confident about putting him out there.

Playing defence isn’t something he needed to focus on much at the junior level because he was usually in control of the puck. It’s a different story in the pros.

“For him to take the next step, he has to accentuate his strengths and he has to work on the finer details of defending,” said Woodcroft, adding they’ve been trying to get a little more urgency into his puck retrieval. “His ability to get back for pucks chipped in behind him and break pucks out quickly, I thought we saw very good improvement there. And he continues to work on his proximity to his check, meeting his check early and the physical relationship of where to steer offensive players and how to deter them from getting to our net.

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“Those are areas that we continue to put a lot of emphasis on. The good news for Evan this year was he got a lot of practice with the ice time he commanded against men.”

It helps Bouchard’s cause immensely that he’s a smart player who understands where and why he needs to improve and how to get there. That’s why the coaching staff in Bakersfield saw steady improvement all season.

“Maybe one of his most underrated skills that you wouldn’t know about if you’re not around him a lot is he’s very coachable,” said Woodcroft. “He’s the type of player you can make an adjustment on the bench just by verbalizing it. He doesn’t need to see it on film 10 times or walk through things a bunch of times in practice. His hockey IQ is high enough that he can make adjustments on the fly.

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“He has a willingness to learn, he gained great experience this season and that’s going to help him going forward.”

Now it’s just a matter of waiting until the organization thinks Bouchard is ready to take on the NHL. They’ll have a much better idea when training camp begins, whenever that is, or perhaps, even, if there is a way he can worm his way into a relaunched 2019-20 season and playoffs.

“I don’t think you can put timelines on anything, especially when it comes to high-end prospects,” said Woodcroft. “There are things that young players have to work on, that’s why they’re in the American League. There are skills they need to refine and habits that need to be engrained.

“The biggest thing you want to put an emphasis on is seeing daily improvement. There was a lot of positive progress in Evan’s game. Ultimately, he needs to continue to get better on a daily basis. When he does, his time will come.”

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